Revolt of the Accountants

Wall Street Journal ^ | 8 Oct 2010 | Peggy Noonan

[docbnj]

There is a real fear that government, with all its layers, its growth, its size, its imperviousness, is changing, or has changed, who we are. And that if we lose who we are, as Americans, we lose everything.

This is part of what's driving the sense of political urgency this year, especially within precincts of the tea party.

[docbnj]

This time Peggy Noonan has hit a home run. She uses Greece as an examle, but outlines with crystal clarity how the liberal Nanny-state leads to mass corruption and social decay. This is the message that needs to repeated endlessly, or until the public gets it (whichever comes first). The liberals are the USA equivalent of the drug cartels in Columbia or México.

[docbnj]

And here is my favorite passage: “There are of course a million examples, big and small, of how governments can damage the actual nature and character of the citizenry, and only because there was just a commercial on TV telling me to gamble will I mention the famous case of the state lotteries. Give government the right to reap revenues from the public desire to gamble, and you’ll soon have government doing something your humble local bookie never had the temerity to try: convince the people that gambling is a moral good. They promote it insistently on local television, undermining any remaining reserve among our citizens not to play the numbers, not to develop what can become an addiction. Our state government daily promotes what for 2,000 years was understood to be a vice. No bookie ever committed a crime that big.”

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Noonan’s all meringue, no lemon.
Ok, this time maybe a spoonful of lemon. Probably borrowed.

[docbnj]

Noonan is a writer. Of course she is restating ideas of Hayek, but in a modern context, and in a simple way more accessible to the average person.

She not only hits the nail on the head in this column, but she hits it hard. How did she get it right this time? As she says, she listened to the tea-party people, which is what a good reporter should have been doing. She sympathetically summarizes what she thinks is their main concern, and essentially agrees.

By contrast, I listened to PBS news last night. All their reporters do is reiterate their own opinions. They are all worried about how badly 0 is doing in the polls, and how the public just doesn’t understand. This is pure propaganda.

Hey, Noonan is right this time. Give her lots of credit. Don’t look for allies and friends who are always perfect, or you will find yourself in a very small circle, indeed.

[jospehm20]

What do you suppose she expected to happen while she was shilling for the Kenyan?

[ghost of nixon]

Hey, Noonan is right this time. Give her lots of credit

yes, this article reframes the Tea Party argument perfectly...we don't want to become a nation of cheaters and buck passers...

[Republic of Texas]

A good writer can summarize the thoughts of others with crystal clarity. A great writer can summarize these same ideas when they count. Like two years earlier.

[Vigilanteman]

For years poor Peggy was standing at the station waiting for the train to relevancy, not realizing the train didn't stop there anymore. It looks like she finally figured it out and has moved on to a station with train service.

I welcome her back and wish her well.

[tired&retired]

“Revolt of the Accountants”

My wife says that her husband, an accountant, is very revolting some Days!

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Nobody does fine tuning at her age. She’s got a weather vane for a compass.
Got a sale on metaphors today. :)

YMMV,
HAND
X-IX-MMX

[haroldeveryman]

When the first state lotteries were introduced, the first thing people noticed was that the odds were worse than the mob run numbers rackets in the ghettos.